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Monday, October 29, 2012

AutoCAD’s Sheet Set Manager (SSM) can be used to just manage Sheets and their title blocks in a Sheet Set but there is also functionality to manage callouts and view labels.

A view on one sheet can refer to a view on another sheet. Hyperlinks of callouts makes it possible to quickly open the sheet that is referenced by the callout zooming into the view. There can be multiple callouts referring to one sheet view and when the sheet view is renamed and renumbered this will be reflected on all callouts.

Sheet Set Manager is now included also in AutoCAD LT since the 2012 version.

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Here is what AutoCAD’s documentation says about Sheet Views:

A view on a sheet, called a sheet view, consists of several coincident entities:

an xref or geometry in model space

a layout viewport on a sheet

a named view in paper space

The Sheet Set Manager automates and enhances the process for adding views to a sheet.

The sheet view can display model space from a different drawing file. In this case, that drawing is attached as an xref in your current drawing. The layers of that drawing file are displayed only in the sheet view that you create.

Note The xref is attached using a relative path. If you need to change the path to a fully specified (absolute) path, use the External References palette.

A layout viewport that displays the model space view is created on your current sheet.

A named view that encompasses the area of the layout viewport is created in paper space.

When you place a sheet view on a sheet, all the layers in the current drawing (including layer 0) are frozen in the new viewport created by the view. The layers are shown as frozen in the VP Freeze column of the Layer Properties Manager.

If you need to remove a sheet view from a sheet, you can delete the layout viewport to remove the view. However, to remove all unused items, you need to detach the xref and delete the named paper space view.

Note! The easiest method for removing a sheet view immediately after placing it is to use UNDO.

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A prerequisite for creating Sheet Views is that there is at least one location added to Model Views tab in SSM.

Then the models need named modelspace views that can be created with the VIEW command. Only sheet views created in AutoCAD 2005 or later are listed on the Sheet Views tab. Then they will show up like this.

Right click on a Model View and select Place on Sheet or drag and drop it into a sheet that you have open. This will create a viewport based on the view boundaries on the layout of the sheet, attach the model as an xref taking layer visibility into account and add a view label with its insertion point at the lower left corner of the viewport.

Before the view is placed you have an option to select the view scale. Just move the mouse over the blank sheet and the preview of the view. Right-click and a list of scale options appears where you you can select a scale.

Having placed a Sheet View on a Sheet you can double click on the View found on the Sheet Views tab in SSM.

One problem with moving the viewport in AutoCAD is that the actual view often get distorted as seen below showing much more than needed.

The Sheet Views are named Layout Views views on steroids. They can be edited and deleted with the View command. Note that Viewport association is Yes. Viewport association displays whether the named view is associated with a viewport on a sheet in a sheet set. It is not possible to create a new view in View Manager to have a viewport association or to change an existing view if Viewport association is set to No as it is greyed out. A limitation is that changing the view on the master drawing after a view has been placed on a sheet will not either update the view as expected.

In SSM right click on the view and you get the options to Display, Rename & Renumber, Set category, Place Callout Block and Place View Label Block.

After using Rename & Renumber the Sheet View name can be different than the name of the view that shows up in View Manager and the other way around.

To delete a sheet view just erase the viewport and its view label block. This will leave the callouts not knowing what sheet view to point on. The xref to the model needs also to be detached manually if not needed longer.

A general warning is to never overwrite fields (text with gray background) like the one seen when double clicking on a sheet view label block. Doing that will break the smart link that the field holds.

What if you want to move the sheet view to another sheet? If you take CUTCLIP and PASTECLIP of the viewport and view label block you will notice that the xref to the model view is not included and the linked callouts will not know where to go and so on. Right now the way to do it is more or less manually recreating the sheet view and its callouts.

There is still a lot of room for improvements to the Sheet Set Manager within AutoCAD as you will notice if you try to use it to the full. But even with the existing functionalities it can help to ease your AutoCAD life.

JTB World’s SSMPropEditor can be a useful complement to the Sheet Set Manager. At this point there is no support for handling sheet views but if you have this need feel free to let me know and it might be added in a future version. We are also able to do other kind of Sheet Set Manager customizations based on user requests.

Monday, October 15, 2012

The new BricsCAD (Windows) version 13.1.5 has got Sheet Set Manager functionality added.

I downloaded the trial to make a quick test of it.

During the test I got several problems, bugs, crashes and error messages…

and found that it is only a small subset of AutoCAD’s Sheet Set Manager functionality that has been added and not everything has been done correct either.

BricsCAD also hijacked my DST files.

I could not find a way to create custom properties for example. I expect there will be several fixes in upcoming versions to rectify these things. If I were a BricsCAD user I would be very hesitant to start using the Sheet Set functionality until it is more stable.

The good news is that our SSMPropEditor seems to work fine with the Sheet Set DST files BricsCAD creates or edits. Thus any BricsCAD user that want to for example edit properties on multiple sheets at once will find SSMPropEditor beneficial.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Some FlexNet/FLEXlm enabled products support license borrowing. Some of the below apply only to Autodesk products but most applies to other FlexEnabled applications too.

What is License Borrowing?

License Borrowing allows users to borrow a product license from the network license server to use the product for a specified time even if the computer is not connected to the network. When a license is borrowed, one license less is available for other users. The license is automatically returned to the license server at the end of the day on the return date set when the license was borrowed. The user can return a license early but that must be done when connected to the network license server and be done from the same user and computer that initially borrowed the license. A borrowed license cannot be returned earlier from the license server. The maximum borrowing period can be different from software to software but can be limited by editing the options file.

Most network licensed Autodesk products allow you to use the software while temporarily disconnected from your company's network, such as when you are on business trip or working at a remote location. Unless 6 months are needed set as low limit as possible to avoid licenses from being orphaned, something that can happen if a laptop is stolen during a trip.

Because network licenses are more expensive than single licenses make sure users don’t borrow licenses just to be sure they have a license all the time. Make sure users return the borrowed license as soon as they don’t need it any more. JTB FlexReport has reports that helps to identify users that are borrowing licenses while still connected to the network.

Autodesk product licenses do not support the Borrowing tab in LMTOOLS. This tab exists to support other products that use FlexNet.

You can upgrade FlexNet even if licenses are borrowed. It is possible to release licenses early to the updated FlexNet server.

How to can I Borrow a License?

In AutoCAD it is found in the Tools menu > License Borrowing > Borrow License but for some other products it is hidden in Help>About>Product Information dialog box and then you can select License borrow.

BORROWLICENSE command is another option that can be used in for example AutoCAD.

For non-Autodesk products to initiate borrowing, the end user of the FlexEnabled application sets the borrow period by running lmborrow from the command line or through lmtools on the FlexEnabled client machine. It is also possible to set the LM_BORROW environment variable directly.

When does the Borrowed License Expire?

If you don't remember when a license expires, you can check the date by placing your cursor over the Borrowing icon in your Autodesk product's status tray (does not work in all products) or by clicking Help > About and consulting the Product License Information dialog box. When the borrowing period expires, the borrowed license is automatically returned to the license server at the end of the day on the return date you set when you borrow the license. When your computer is reconnected to the network, you can run your Autodesk product from the network or borrow a license again. See also below under “How to Find out what Users are Borrowing a License?”.

For non-Autodesk products end users can issue the following commands to display the status of licenses (vendor, feature name, and expiration date) currently borrowed by their FlexEnabled application. From the FlexEnabled client machine, enter the following command: lmborrow -status

How can a License be Returned Early?

Borrowed licenses can only be returned early from within the application that they were borrowed and when connected to the network license server. Borrowed licenses cannot be returned early from LMTOOLS for Autodesk licenses.

Access to the command varies by product, and includes one or more of the following options: ■ Click Tools menu ➤ License Borrowing ➤ Return License Early. ■ Click Help menu ➤ About ➤ Product Information or Product License Information. In the Product License Information dialog box, click Return License, and then click Yes. ■ In the status tray, right-click the License Borrowing icon. Click Return License Early.

RETURNLICENSE command is another option that can be used in for example AutoCAD.

For non-Autodesk products end users of the FlexEnabled application return a borrowed license early this way: 1. Reconnect the FlexEnabled client to the network. 2. From the FlexEnabled client machine, issue the following command: lmborrow -return [-fqdn][-c license_file_list] [-d display] feature

argument -fqdn: Directs lmborrow to access the borrowing system using its fully qualified host name.Use this option if the license was borrowed based on the fully qualified host name,rather than the relative distinguished name. Use lmstat to determine the format of the host name used when the license was borrowed.

argument -c license_file_list: Use the specified license files. In some configurations, the license file needs to be specified in order to return the license file early.

argument -d display: Used to specify the display from which the borrow was initiated. Required if your current display is different than what was used to initiate the borrow. On Windows, it is the system name or, in the case of a terminal server environment, the terminal server client name. On UNIX, it is in the form /dev/ttyxx or the X-Display name.

argument feature: The name of the borrowed feature to be returned early. Use lmborrow -status to get a list of borrowed feature names.

End users can clear the LM_BORROW setting to stop licenses from being borrowed until borrowing is initiated again. For example, users might run lmborrow -clear after they have borrowed licenses for features that are used offline if—before disconnecting from the network—they want to run an application that checks out additional features, served by that vendor name, that are not meant to be borrowed. Clearing LM_BORROW does not change the status for already borrowed licenses. End users can remove expired borrowed licenses from their FlexEnabled client machine using lmborrow -purge.

How is Borrowing Defined in the License File?

In the license file below the INCREMENT line there can be a BORROW parameter. If it says BORROW=4320, the maximum period that licenses can be borrowed is 4320 hours (180 days), unless otherwise noted. The default borrow period is 168 hours, or one week.License borrowing is disabled when this parameter is absent in the license file. Example: INCREMENT 57600ACD_2009_0F adskflex 1.000 permanent 5 \ VENDOR_STRING=commercial:permanent BORROW=4320 SUPERSEDE \

How to Find out what Users are Borrowing a License?

LMTOOLS>Server Status or the LMSTAT argument of LMUTIL can be used to perform a status enquiry that will show if a license is borrowed. Linger is a value that indicates the original borrow period in seconds. To convert value to days, divide the linger value by 86400.

Normally it can be calculated when the borrowed license expires by using the start date (checked out date and time) and the linger value but if the license server or service is restarted the start date will change and thus give an incorrect expire date.

Limit borrow period

You can specify the maximum duration of time that a specific license can be borrowed for in hours. This value cannot be above the maximum borrow period specified by Autodesk in the product license file. Note! Licenses are borrowed in increments of 24 hours only. Any number that is more than a 24-hour increment is not used. For example, the number 365 would be rounded down to 360 hours, or 15 days.

Excluding license borrowing

You can block the ability to borrow specific licenses for a user, computer, group of users or computers, IP address, IP address range or by LM_PROJECT variable association (computer names and user names are case sensitive). Any users, hosts or IP addresses not explicitly excluded will continue to have the ability to borrow licenses.

Including license borrowing

You can provide the ability to borrow specific licenses for a user, computer, group of users or computers, IP address, IP address range or by LM_PROJECT variable association (computer names and user names are case sensitive).

Note: Any users, hosts or IP addresses not explicitly included will not have the ability to borrow the specified licenses. If you want to block license borrowing for only a few users, you should consider using the EXCLUDE_BORROW syntax above.

What Autodesk says about Interaction with Other License-Borrowing Tools

Using the license-borrowing feature in your Autodesk product is the recommended way to borrow a license. Some third-party borrowing tools may also be available to you, but these tools are not supported or compatible with the license-borrowing feature in your Autodesk product. Other third-party or legacy license-borrowing tools that may be available to you are the Autodesk License-Borrowing utility (shipped with Autodesk products) and the borrowing feature in LMTOOLS utility, a component of the Autodesk Network License Manager on Windows servers. If another license-borrowing tool is active when you attempt to use the license borrowing feature, you should proceed as follows to borrow a license for your Autodesk product: ■ If you run the Autodesk License-Borrowing utility that shipped with your Autodesk product and then turn on the borrowing flag for the Adskflex option or the All option, a license can be borrowed when you start your Autodesk product. However, you cannot return a license until you exit and then restart your Autodesk product. ■ On a Windows server, if borrowing is set in the LMTOOLS utility for all products, you can either use the other tool to borrow licenses for your Autodesk product, or stop the borrowing process in LMTOOLS utility, and then use the license-borrowing feature in your Autodesk product. ■ If borrowing is set in LMTOOLS utility for non-Autodesk products only, you must stop the borrowing process in LMTOOLS utility. You can then use the license-borrowing feature to borrow licenses for your Autodesk product. If you do not stop the borrowing process in LMTOOLS utility, the license borrowing feature will not function.

lmborrow

For non-Autodesk products the lmborrow utility supports the borrowing of those licenses that contain the BORROW attribute. This utility runs on the FlexEnabled client machine that borrows the licenses. The FlexEnabled application end users can use the utility to do the following: • Initiate borrowing by setting the borrow period • Clear the borrow period • Purge expired licenses • Determine borrow status • Return a borrowed license early

Problems with network licensing borrowing

You are looking for information about license borrowing or you are experiencing problems with network license borrowing.

Common problems with network license borrowing for AutoCAD-based software are listed below. Try applying these solutions first, and then review further instructions if the problem persists.

Unable to run the product after borrowing a license

You borrowed a license for your Autodesk product. However, when you tried to start the program, you received an error indicating that the license manager could not be found.

Borrowed network licenses are locked to the workstation machine in a number of ways.

A borrowed license is stored in the local user profile and is only available to the exact same user that originally borrowed it. Make that your login credentials match those used at the time the license was borrowed. Pay careful attention to the username and login domain to ensure that you are logging in as the same user.

Note: If the user profile is removed or significantly altered while a license is borrowed, you may lose access to the license for the duration of the borrow period.

A borrowed license is locked to the network card that was active when the license was borrowed. For example, if a removable (PCMCIA, USB etc) network adapter is used to borrow the license, this device must be present when you run the Autodesk application with that license.

Note: Some network adapters are disabled by default as part of the power management profile. You should refer to the documentation for your machine and network card for additional information about disabling this feature.

Error 1.5.-124 when attempting to return a borrowed license

When you tried to return a borrowed license from a client workstation, the following error message was displayed:

License Return Error - Your license cannot be returned. For more information, contact your system administrator. Note: you can still use your borrowed license until (midnight): <Date>. Error: [1.5.-124]

This error usually indicates that the client and/or license manager have changed in some way since the license was originally borrowed. There is no way to force the early return of a borrowed license. However, the following procedures will often resolve the error.

Method 1 - Wait out the borrow period

Depending on how long your license is borrowed and how urgently you need to return it to the network pool, it may be easiest to simply wait out the remainder of the borrow period when the license will be automatically returned. Network administrators might consider implementing an Options file to restrict the maximum borrow period or limit who can borrow licenses so the impact of future borrowing problems can be reduced. Refer to the following solution for details about configuring an Options file. Controlling network license access using an options file.

Method 2 - Reborrow the license and then return it

Erase the knowledge of the borrowed license from the client machine, borrow it again, and then try to return it using the procedure below. Note: This procedure resets all borrowed licenses for this user/computer.

On the client computer, log in as the user who borrowed the license. On the Start menu (Windows), click Run (Windows 2000/XP) or Start>Search (Windows Vista). Enter regedit, and then click OK. In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\FLEXlm License Manager\Borrow In the Registry Editor, on the File menu, click Export to create a back up of this key. Delete this registry key. Close the Registry Editor. Borrow the license again for the product(s) and version(s) that you could not return. Return the license(s) for each product.

Forcing the return of a borrowed license

You borrowed a license and you now want to return it to the server. You were unable to return the license from the client machine. Possible reasons can include:

Errors when trying to return a borrowed license early Deletion or corruption of the user's profile who borrowed the license Hard drive failure which renders the operating system inaccessable

There is no way to force the return of a borrowed license from the FlexLM license manager. Once the borrow period expires the license will be automatically returned to the license server pool.

Notes: It is strongly recommended that network administrators limit network license borrowing to those users who specifically need to take licenses on the road. It is strongly recommended that administrators set the maximum borrow period to an amount of time that corresponds with how long these users will be away from the license manager. These settings are controlled using an options file. For more information about configuring an options file see the following solution: Controlling network license access using an options file. Do not use the Borrowing tab in LMTOOLS with Autodesk product licenses. Doing so can cause additional borrowed licenses to become orphaned from the license manager.

Using the Borrowing tab in LMTOOLS The Borrowing tab in LMTOOLS is not used with Autodesk products. Using this tab may cause unexpected results (including the potential for lost licenses). The Borrowing tab exists in LMTOOLS to support other vendor's products. While some users have been successful using the Borrow tab in LMTOOLS with Autodesk products, it is not tested or supported and has caused issues for users in the past. Borrowed licenses cannot be returned early from LMTOOLS.

If these solutions do not resolve the installation error, the additional tests listed below will help you determine the cause of the problem:

If you are experiencing problems returning a license from a client machine, you should make sure that the client machine is still pointing to the correct license manager by setting the ADSKFLEX_LICENSE_FILE environment variable.

As a network administrator, consider restricting the maximum borrowing period and/or limiting who in your organization can borrow licenses. These tasks can be performed by implementing an options file on your license manager.

If you worked through the standard troubleshooting steps and were not able to resolve the issue, follow this link for additional technical assistance.

Please collect the following information from your system before requesting technical assistance:

Monday, October 8, 2012

Would you like to use AutoCAD together with an external database? With ACAD_db block attribute values can automatically be updated back and forth to one or many external databases. If you make changes to the attribute values they can be synchronized back to the external database or the other way around.

The main news in version 2.0 is support for AutoCAD 2013 based products and support for Oracle database.

This is an acquisition to Expand Social Capabilities of Autodesk Cloud Services. Qontext is an enterprise social collaboration software, from India-based Pramati Technologies. The acquisition of the Qontext technology and development team is said to accelerate Autodesk’s ongoing move to the cloud and expansion of social capabilities in the Autodesk 360 cloud-based service.

Autodesk intends to use the Qontext technology to add new social capabilities to Autodesk 360, a cloud-based platform that offers users the ability to store, search, and view critical design data improving the way they design, visualize, simulate and share work with others at anytime and from anywhere.

“Mobile, cloud and social computing are dramatically changing the way engineers, designers and architects work. The addition of the Qontext technology to the Autodesk portfolio will lead to new technology innovations that help our customers embrace these disruptive technologies and leverage them for competitive advantage,” said Amar Hanspal, Autodesk senior vice president of information modeling and platform products. “It was great to work with the team at Pramati who have demonstrated a great capability in incubating disruptive businesses." via press release

As a result of detailed information from customers who used the Customer Error Reporting Utility, a number of problems were identified and fixed. Updates have been made in the following commands and features:

AEC Dimensions

Crash when saving a drawing originally in 2004 (or earlier) format, with AEC Dimensions on a locked layer.

Drawing Management

Intermittent crash when creating a Construct in Project Navigator, or when opening AutoCAD Architecture with a certain project current.

Grips

Occasional crash when editing grips for of structural members.

Layer Key

Fatal error when layer key overrides from tool palettes and layer key overrides of current layer standard do not match.

Open

Frequent crash when opening some drawings.

Sections

Occasional crash when modifying an object that is included in a section.

Crash while generating sections for big drawings or when using CreateHLR.

Schedules

Crash when exporting to Excel 2003 a Schedule table which includes a complex formula.

Walls

Occasional crash related to certain wall cleanup conditions.

Windows 8

Frequent crash when closing AutoCAD Architecture.

General Service Pack Updates in AutoCAD Architecture

The following defects have been fixed:

AEC Dimensions

Some AEC dimensions created before version 2007 do not display correctly in later versions.

Annotation Scaling

Some tags are very small when added to drawings that use meters.

Autodesk 360

Synchronizing tool palettes to Autodesk 360 is very slow. This capability has been disabled with this Service Pack.

Online Render does not support AutoCAD Architecture objects.

Doors

Some double door styles with custom profiles do not display correctly.

Elevation Labels

When an external reference is bound into the drawing, its elevation labels will be reset to zero.

IFC

Several improvements have been made to meet the requirements of IFC coordination view 2.0 and GSA certification.